Personal Emergency
by HecateA
Summary: There are very few things that can make Reyna leave her position in New Rome, even temporarily. Oneshot. Femslash February, Day 7.


**Can you use an angst prompt to write a fluffy story? Femslash February is such a happy and joyful time; I don't see why not. Enjoy the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing, as per usual. I'd be a big fan if anyone could tell me whether or not Rachel and Reyna make sense as a coupe or if I'm totally on crack for this.**

* * *

 **Day: 7**

 **Situation: Person A proposes**

 **Fluff: Cake**

 **Angst: Rejection**

* * *

 **Personal Emergency**

* * *

"What am I supposed to tell the senate when it meets tomorrow?" Frank said, absolutely panicking and stumbling over his feet as he followed Reyna out to the stables.

"Tell them I had a personal emergency," Reyna said.

"Personal emergency, you're barely a person," Frank muttered.

"If you don't think that mine is a good enough excuse, you can simply remind them that praetors are entitled to two weeks of vacation a year, and I've taken none since I started my term nearly two years ago," Reyna said pushing into the stables. "They owe me one and I chose this. You'll do great in there, Zhang."

"I can't be in the senate on my own," Frank said, "I've only been here three months!"

"By the time I'd been in the senate three months, I was on my goddamn own twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and _that's_ how often there were paperwork and problems and new mythologies and dissapearances and mutinies," Reyna said. "Are you telling me that if I take a quick trip, you're going to mess up my fort, my legion and my city?"

"No ma'am," Frank said after a second of stunned silence. Usually Reyna would correct him, _I'm not your superior anymore, Frank_. But in the moment, she was okay with it as she saddled up Toes, a pegasus whose unusual hooves had earned him the same name as Caesar's favourite horse.

"Perfect," Reyna said. She climbed onto the pegasus. "Now don't forget the paperwork, if you have a second I'd like you to check in with New Rome's mayor, and don't embarass me by pinning your toga wrong in front of the senators. Hazel can help you pin it right."

"Yes, Hazel can help me pin it right," Frank mumbled. "Okay, yes, I won't embarass you and I'll remember the paperwork. Have fun on your… personal emergency."

"I'll see what I can do," Reyna said.

* * *

"Rachel," Reyna said quietly, knocking against the sliding door. "Rachel…"

She knocked again.

"Rachel, are you in there?" Reyna asked. "Don't tell me that I just broke into a penthouse for no reason..." Then louder, "Rachel?"

The only answer was some steady alternative rock, indie something-or-other (Reyna didn't _need_ to understand Rachel's taste of music to love her, that was a decision she'd taken long ago). She also decided that she didn't care much at this point, and that the troubled-and-edgy-and-chaotic-artist-lost-in their own head front wouldn't deteriorate just because of a rude interruption, so she slid the big door open and burst into Rachel's room- which was covered with a new mural or picture or piece of art every time that Reyna came in. She particularly enjoyed the _Starry Night_ inspired mural. She scanned the room like a battlefield and located Rachel under about three quilts, a duvet, an afghan and a fuzzy brown throw.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," Reyna said. "I am up to my eyes in work and four time zones away from you. When I fly out here, it's to surprise you or celebrate a birthday or see an obscure movie that you keep talking to me about over IM. So when Percy Jackson calls and tells me that there is something wrong with my girlfriend, I get very confused. Especially when he uses words like 'unresponsive', 'distraught' and 'isolated'; all of which Annabeth definitely taught him, which means that she is also worried about you- and I believe Annabeth's judgement just about blindly. Yet you've been silent and I'm worried about that too, so let's get all the yuck out of the way and make this visit nice. What's wrong Rachel?"

Rachel didn't move much, but a hand stuck out of the blanket nest to turn the stereo off with a little remote, followed by a half-hearted wiggle for the rest of Rachel to emerge. Reyna didn't see much of her, but there were enough bright red curls and emerald green eyes and freckle constellations for Reyna to recognise all the beautiful parts.

"Chicago turned me down," Rachel said in a tiny and shaky voice.

"The art school," Reyna nodded. "Oh, babe…"

"They turned me down," Rachel said. "And I mean, of course Rhode Island is still my first choice so I'm still happy, but recently it just… it started to sound like a really good idea to go as far away from New York as I could. To really get geographically away from my parents… But now I'm stuck again."

"No you're not," Reyna said. "Rachel, you can touch the sky…"

"Not the sky of Chicago," Rachel grumbled.

"Okay, Rachel," Reyna said, kicking off her sneakers at the door before walking in. She crossed Rachel's bedroom and all of the protein bar wrappers, crumpled up doodles, empty paint cans now filled with pencils and pens, dirty laundry, and discarded homework that gave Reyna's military upbringing and training aneurysms.

"Shove over, Rachel, I'm crawling in."

"What?" Rachel muttered.

"I have a fourty-eight hour break from work and if my girlfriend is feeling rejected and pathetic, I'm going to spend fourty-eight hours in her bed under the weight of a thousand blankets that make me feel like I'm dying," Reyna said. "Now move."

Rachel did with a big, lazy _oomf_ and Reyna crawled into bed with her.

"Come here," Reyna said.

"Your feet are so cold," Rachel said. "Ewe."

"I just crossed the country on a Pegasus," Reyna said. "I think I'm allowed to be a bit windburned and cold."

"It makes you a lousy big spoon," Rachel accused.

"You're a bad little spoon," Reyna said. "So stop talking. Cuddle or you'll never feel better."

So Rachel did, and Reyna wrapped her arms around Rachel's midriff. Reyna's chin rested on a bunch of curls and it really hit Reyna in that second how small her girlfriend was.

"Where did you park your Pegasus?" Rachel said quietly. Reyna laughed.

"He's in Central Park until further notice," Reyna said.

"He won't move?" Rachel asked.

"Nope," Reyna said. "Rachel, you've been eating a lot of Chinese food, haven't you? I think I'm laying on a chopstick…"

"That's from the sushi take-out," Rachel said. "But yeah. Lots of Chinese food."

"You're leaving home as soon as you turn eighteen," Reyna said. "You don't _need_ Chicago to leave your parents and make your own way. Especially if you _want_ Rhode Island."

"I know," Rachel said.

"Also I live in California," Reyna said. "That's wine country. The Golden State, and everything. It's also very far from your parents, I'm just saying. And yes, I'm still working on growing a fine arts school there, but you know, keep it in mind if you ever stop being in love with Rhode Island. Which you won't, of course, because you were _obsessed_ with this school until recently."

"I'm upset right now because my dad bought a villa on a beach that used to be protected land, for sea turtles to lay eggs," Rachel admitted. "I know this sounds silly, but listen to me and you'll see that that's messed up. Where are the turtles supposed to have babies? Without protected hatching grounds, how is the population supposed to go up, right? I think I'm using Chicago to project how angry with him and his capitalistic ways I am, it's psychological."

"Of course it is," Reyna said. "I mean, keep cuddling."

Rachel was quiet for a bit, and Reyna played with a curls. If humans could pur, that was what Rachel was doing- even if ten seconds ago she'd used 'capitalistic ways' in a sentence.

"How did you get time off?" Rachel asked. "You never get time off. I literally met you during an intercamp meeting. Our first kiss was an accident in between two military drills. You're such a stickler for the rules, you basically needed written permission from Apollo to confirm that my vows were exclusive to men."

"I took the time off," Reyna said.

"You used your time?"

"I called it a personal emergency," Reyna said.

Rachel turned around and her big green eyes looked at Reyna. They looked dangerously damp.

"I'm your personal emergency?" Rachel asked.

"Please, I'm _always_ fine," Reyna said. "I can literally do anything. It's you I've got to worry about."

"That's so sweet," Rachel said.

"Don't cry," Reyna said. "Please don't, or I'm going back I swear to the gods, Frank will be waiting for me with open arms."

"Okay," Rachel said.

"But while I've got fourty-eight hours off, you better show me that show you always tell me about," Reyna said. "On, what is it, umm, Netflix? And since you mentioned Chinese food: I want some. That or sushi, you're in a critical state so you can pick, but let's multitask while we make you feel better."

Rachel laughed. "If you can reach my laptop on the bedside table, we can order food _and_ us what-is-it-umm-Netflix. I'll show you wifi."

"I _know_ what wifi is," Reyna said.

"There's no Latin word for it," Rachel said.

"Keep going or even the promise of egg rolls won't keep me and my parked pegasus here," Reyna said.

"But there's an emeeeergency," Rachel whined.

"Not even those chicken balls will do it," Reyna said. "Or those delicious noodles with that really good sauce…"

"It's a _personal_ emergency," Rachel said, dissolving into giggles when Reyna kissed her neck and then her lips to shut her up. Personally.


End file.
